The Metaverse, the blanket
term for immersive 3D spaces like virtual worlds, is gaining more
and more attention as platforms are being built to cater to just
about every age group and social interest. From environments that
help parents entice their kids to do household chores to
worlds that encourage socializing (and business marketing) like
Second Life,
the space is creating opportunities that go far beyond gaming.

Thanks to Henrik Bennetsen, Research Director at Stanford’s
Humanities Lab, we have the chance to peek behind the curtain and
see what all the buzz is about. As the Conference Chair at last
month’s Metaverse U conference, he
decided to pick the brains of some of this year’s participants and
guests. Armed with a video camera, four questions were posed to
developers, researchers, and students working in the virtual world
space:

1. What excites you about current metaverse technology?
2. What concerns you about current metaverse technology?
3. What will be most the surprising impact of metaverse technology
on society within the next decade?
4. What barriers will metaverse technology never
overcome?

Corey Bridges, co-founder of Multiverse

Twenty-some videos are currently available on youTube with the
results. The responses were generally optimistic as to the
evolution of the metaverse for communication, collaboration, and
learning. There’s great potential for social change too. Mirror
worlds are being built to allow us to see and understand things
going on in the world that the media might typically filter out.
Many predicted a convergence between virtual worlds and social
networking, and felt the adoption rate of new mashup platforms
would only grow, due to the rate of accelerating technological
change.

Concerns about the metaverse, echoed by dissidents of many new
technologies that increase transparency, mostly dealt with the loss
of privacy, and possible surveillance issues. Government and
corporate interference was also a concern, as limitations placed by
these entities could hamper the creativity and innovation needed
for the metaverse to grow.

Greg Howes of GeoSherpa

The next decade will be an exciting time to see what we’re
capable of creating in 3D environments. We’re already seeing a
trend that mobile devices appear to be the future of internet
usage, and development is already underway to build virtual world
platforms to that end. Navigating your avatar to meet friends,
conduct business meetings, or visit a foreign country will be as
simple as picking up your cellphone.

There may be no replacement for actual face-to-face interactions
at the moment, but who knows what the future will hold. With the
advances of photorealistic rendering, integration of sensory
experience, and capturing the nuances of body language, the virtual
world may one day be indistinguishable from reality. What do you
think?